Vodafone looking to acquire smaller rivals in India

As the government of India is looking to relax telecom regulations in the country, Vodafone is eyeing for acquisitions.

Marten Pieters, head of Vodafone India, told the Financial Times that the company is well placed to participate in any forthcoming spate of deals.”Vodafone is a natural consolidator in the market. We are only in telecoms. We believe in scale, and we are financially strong,” he said. Pieters also confirmed that the company is still looking at a stock market listing for the Indian subsidiary, although he didn’t suggest a timeline.

The Indian government is expected to relax the merger rules between telecoms operators later this year, although next year’s General Election could delay their implementation.

Vodafone, which will soon be bursting with cash from Verizon’s acquisition of Verizon Wireless, has previously warned that it would only be able to consider a listing once its long running tax dispute is resolved, and recent talks do appear to be moving the two sides towards some sort of compromise.